AN: Surprise! There is an extra chapter for After Dark this week! It's a bit a surprise to me, too, as I wrote this chapter several weeks ago but wasn't going to post it as it doesn't meet my self-created rules for After Dark stories. But then a reader who is also a friend informed me that you'd all rather have an extra chapter than yours truly adhering to some sort of self-imposed rule. So here it is. And, no, it doesn't follow the rules. But I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

Denial (takes place concurrent with Le Petit Prince)

Apparently, he had also lost track of time, because when Amy softly asked him if he would mind if she went out with the girls, he had just shrugged. He was so disconnected he didn't know it was the last evening of the month.

"Ames! You made it!" Penny cheered from her seat at the table. "Watcha drinking tonight?"

Amy sat down between her two girlfriends. "Just water. I drove myself. No DD."

"Ah, you deserve some wine. We can give you a ride home," Bernadette offered.

"No, thank you. Then we'll have to come get the car later and it will be weird."

"Well, anyway, we're just glad you decided to come," Penny said after the waiter came to take their order. "What was it you thought you were doing tonight?"

Amy frowned. "Technically, it's Book Club Night. But Sheldon didn't read the book. I mean, I don't think so, because he hasn't said anything about it. I decided at the last minute I needed a night out. Not that Sheldon is likely to notice, so I don't know why I'm worried."

Her friends exchanged a look she was, unfortunately, becoming all too familiar with lately before beaming exaggerated smiles back at her.

"So, how's work?" Bernadette asked.

"Fine."

"And, uh, the harp?" Penny asked

"Fine."

"And . . . reading?" Bernadette asked.

"Fine."

"Hmmmm," Penny and Bernadette hummed in unison before exchanging another glance.

"Oh, I forgot!" Bernadette said. "I got the first proofs from the photographer today of Jacob's pictures. Let me pull up the link." She fiddled with her phone for a moment before passing it to Penny.

"Bernadette, he's adorable," Penny squealed as she flipped through the images. "These are so great! Now that he's finally getting some hair he looks more like you. And that smile!"

"Yeah, I think he's already mastered the art of flirting. I blame Howie."

Amy's friends chuckled, and then Amy realized she wasn't so she joined in. Penny passed her the phone. Jacob Wolowitz's chubby smile filled the screen. Amy flipped through as quickly as she thought she could and still be tactful. She could not deal with a happy baby. "Yes, these are good."

Another glance exchange.

"Well, girls, what should we do? If we want to recapture our youth, I'd say let's go dancing. But, honestly, I could eat a horse," Penny said

"Me, too, I haven't had dinner yet. We're in a Spanish bar, let's have tapas!" Bernadette replied.

Amy had no idea how long she had been staring down into her water glass before she noticed the silence. She looked up to see her friends looking at her. "Yes, food is fine."

"Perfect, here comes our waiter," Penny said. After she and Bernadette discussed and questioned and ordered for all of them, she spoke again, "I have some maybe good news. Remember that horrible SyFy movie I did? Where I was doing research in the arctic but there was rare arctic snow tsunami with crocodiles in it?"

"Crocazard! Of course, we all went the premiere, remember?" Bernadette said excitedly.

"My agent called and said they're writing a sequel. Well, it's really the same story. Just in Antarctica this time with alligators, but you know."

"Penny, that's wonderful! To Penny and Crocazard 2!" She lifted her glass for a toast.

Another pause before Amy realized they were looking at her. She lifted her glass. "Yeah, to Penny."

After they all took a drink, Penny sat her drink down with a deep sigh. "Ames, sweetie, do you want to talk about it? Because it's obvious you're not paying any attention to our attempts to cheer you up."

Amy felt guilty. And exhausted. And exhausted of feeling guilty. It was one the few emotions in constant rotation this month: confusion, sadness, anxiety, and guilt. "I'm sorry. I guess I've not been much fun lately."

"Don't apologize to us. We're worried about you. And Sheldon. Have you guys talked about it?" Bernadette asked.

"MeeMaw? No. That would require an actual conversation. With complete sentences. If Sheldon managed five syllables in a row I'd be thrilled."

"Is he at least eating now? He's getting scary skinny," Penny said.

"No. I've tried all his favorites, but he just pushes it around his plate and picks at it and takes maybe three bites. I even asked his mother for her pecan pie recipe and slaved all afternoon on it, and that didn't work."

Penny and Bernadette nodded slowly and they all took a drink. No one spoke. Finally Amy took a deep breath. "Thanks for asking. And trying to help. Or at least cheer me up. But I just don't know what to do. The hardest part is that I think Sheldon doesn't realize that everything has changed. I think he thinks as long as he sticks to all his routines no one will notice. How do you deal with that? Isn't ending denial the first step any healing process?"

"Do you want me to talk to him? I didn't know I was depressed at first. I thought I was just tired and overwhelmed, that every new mother felt like that. Honestly," Bernadette blushed, "I might still be that horrible place if you hadn't sat me down and bluntly told me what you suspected, Amy. I'll always be grateful to you for that. Maybe I could repay the favor."

Bernadette reached across the table and squeezed her hand. Almost immediately, Amy felt a tear running down her cheek. She reached up with her free hand to stop it. "Sorry. I guess I'm emotional, too. And, well, if we're being honest, I'm starving for physical affection. Thank you for your offer. But I don't think he'd take it well from you. I think it has to be . . ." Amy's breath rattled as another unwelcome tear squeezed out. "I think I'm going to ask his mom to come. Because I obviously can't do it. Me, his wife. I'm such a failure!"

"Oh, sweetie, you're not a failure." Penny passed her a napkin. "Do you want to leave? I'll find our waiter and cancel our order. It will piss him off, but I'm sure he's used to it. There's always one table, and it'll just be us tonight."

"No, no," Amy patted her face. "That's it, I think. I just hadn't said it before. Knowing something and saying it out loud can be two different things."

"You're not a failure, Amy. You single handily turned Sheldon Cooper into a real boy. I'm sure this is just a rough patch, and you guys will be fine. You're perfect for each other!" Penny said.

"That only makes it worse. I feel so hopeless. I love him so much, but I can't seem to reach him. It's so hard to watch someone you love shrivel up like that, and you feel like you have no control over it. Maybe we're not so perfect together after all." Amy shrugged.

"Listen to me, Amy," Bernadette's voice turned gravelly and deeper. "Do not say that. I know you think we were all so drunk we wouldn't remember, but not so long ago you lectured Penny and me when we needed some tough love. Here's my tough love: yeah, your marriage sucks right now. Yes, Sheldon is probably depressed and acting like an asshole or whatever. But you did nothing wrong. I can't believe the Amy I know would ever be afraid to speak her mind. So you just need to sit that man of your's down, tell him that he needs help, and you're going to get it for him. Or maybe both of you, I won't pretend to know everything about your marriage."

Amy shook her head. "I'm not even sure he listens when I talk anymore. And there is no way I'll ever get Sheldon to a physiologist or someone like that. Although maybe just the threat would wake him up. Oh, I don't know. I keep thinking that one little thing will reach him."

"Do you want us to do it all together? Like an intervention?" Penny asked. "Because the guys are worried too, you know."

"I know. They've all come to talk to me." She shook her head again, recalling how embarrassed and sad those conversations had made her. "No, I think that's too confrontational."

There was another pause as they all stared into their respective drinks.

"When are you going to call his mom?" Bernadette asked.

"Soon, I guess."

"Sweetie, we'll support you whatever you decide to do. But I think I you need to do it before this goes on any longer," Penny said.

"Maybe you're right. I just wish we could figure this out ourselves. We're intelligent adults, right? We love each other. I refuse to believe otherwise. So why can't we do this?"

"I think you can," Bernadette said. "Penny's right, I'll support you no matter what you decide. But I don't think you need Mary Cooper. You just need each other."

You just need each other.

Amy let the words roll about in her head. All she had never needed was Sheldon. She liked to think the same was true for him. She realized that perhaps she had been in a bit of denial herself this month. She nodded. "Give me a week, okay? I need to think of the best way to approach this. It probably won't be tomorrow. But I'll talk to him this week. You can hold me to it."

Penny and Bernadette smiled at her, and they were genuine smiles, not the forced over-large ones they had used earlier in the evening. Then their food came, and there was the usual busyness that always accompanies that.

"How about we go see a movie?" Penny asked.

"I'd love that. I haven't been to a movie since Jacob was born," Bernadette said.

"There's that new movie, Housewives, that's the sequel to Bridesmaids. We could all use a laugh. It's about married women in the their thirties, just like us," Penny said.

"Penny, you're the only housewife," Amy said. "And you just turned thirty."

"No, I'm an actor currently between jobs. That's different. And all the women in the movie have jobs."

"Then why is it called Housewives?" Amy asked.

"I read it's supposed to be ironic. You know, just because even though a woman has a full-time job, she's still expected to do all the chores of a housewife, too," Bernadette answered. "Well, except maybe you, Amy. You're so lucky Sheldon is a neat freak and does his fair share of the cleaning and laundry."

"Yeah. The only freak in our house is Sara, and she only comes once a week and charges for it," Penny quipped.

"When you say it like that she sounds like a prostitute, not your cleaning lady," Amy said.

First Bernadette laughed, then Penny, and, finally Amy joined in. Laughing and remembering how good it felt to laugh, she knew they were right. She and Sheldon could fix this. They only needed each other. And maybe their friends.